Whle I am on vacation, I made 42 Birthday Cards for my Assisted Living Friends living in the Belle Meade Retirement Community in Southern Pines, NC.

My Mother has been living in the Belle Meade Retirement Community since July of 1999. She started out in the Independent Living in a Cottage. As her health declined, she moved into the Coventry building on December 10, 2009. Coventry is an upscale Assisted Living Facility.

I have come to know a lot of the residents there in the 8 1/2 years Mom has lived there.

In November 2017, I thought I would share what I love to do with the residents of the Coventry facility. I started making Thanksgiving and Christmas cards for them. A lot of the residents no longer have family and my beautifully created cards that I send monthly to each resident is a reminder that I am their friend.

Mom fell and dislocated her shoulder and due to a defect in her bone structure, the shoulder dislocates by itself. How painful that must be.

Mom will be moving to another facility, Mary Manor at the end of this month, This facility will give her a better ratio of caregiver to patient. Mom is now wheelchair bound and requires a lot more extra attention.

Beginning in January 2018, I am now sending my cards to all the Assisted Living & Memory Care residents living in the Belle Meade Retirement Community. It gives me a purpose in life to share what I love to do.

I really love the Picture Perfect Designer Series Paper designed by Stampin’ UP! Each piece of paper has a 3D effect and is simply gorgeous.

In November, I was in a real slump in regards to Stampin’ UP! I had to find another “Passion” because I was so depressed, I didn’t want to do anything.

I turned to Amazon and in addition, I joined Audible. Found a great author, Jeff Wheeler, and I listened to all his current books. I love his Series, “Muirwood” and “Kingfountain”. I am patiently waiting for the release of the last book in the Kingfountain Series, The Poisoner’s Enemy, which hits Amazon on 9 January 2018.

After finishing his series, I had to find something else to read (actually listen to) and found Author, Jamie Beck. While I like her series, the characters do not carry forward into the next books. After Reading Jeff Wheeler’s series where the characters continued throughout the series, I found that I actually missed that.

So I used Google to find an Author that wrote Romance Novels where the Characters were carried forward into each book. There are many authors out there. I chose Jude Deveraux – Started Reading her Edilean Series.

OMG! I loved this book. It kept my interest from the very beginning; unlike the first 4 books. While the Author was building the story line, I found the first four books hard to get into, but then about half way into each book, the excitement started bubbling.

I am sad in a way that the Characters from the first 4 books are now not in the present, but each time one of their names are mentioned, I have to really think who was she, who was she married to, and then the spark in my heart continues.

Heartwishes was the best so far! I loved how everything is coming together.

As promised, the Step by Step Instructions for the Clear Block Stamping are quite easy. You just have to remember to use a light touch when touching the Clear Block A to the Stamp Pad; otherwise, you will have much darker colors.

The pictures taken below do not match the finished card because I forgot to take the pictures as I was doing it. But you will get the idea.

I wanted to use the Painted Autumn Designer Series Paper because the colors used to create this beautiful paper reminded me of what I saw in my vision of my card.

This cute card featuring the Feline Carolers was really easy to recreate. This is another one of the cute cards we created on our Scrap N Paper Caribbean Cruise 2017 with Jennifer Gulch the last week of September 2017.

Adhesive is used on the Merry Music Specialty Designer Series Paper, Foil Snowflakes, and the black scalloped circle. If you wish you can adhere the Foil Snowflake a little more to the left so that you don’t have to trim the edges off. The Feline Carolers is stamped using the Archival Black Ink Pad and I used the Layering Circle Frramelits to cut out the circle; however, you can also use the 2 1/4″ Circle Punch. I used Dimensionals to Pop-Up the Carolers to accent them. The tag is stamped onto a piece of Whisper White Cardstock and then trimmed to the correct size. Scissors are used to make the cutouts on the ends. Dimensionals are also used on the sentiment.

Paw La La La La La La La

If you have any questions, please post a comment.

All of these products are in my online store. Just click on the item to purchase.

My Mother will be celebrating her 97th Birthday tomorrow. She has always loved Orchids. I am not sure how she grew to love these beautiful flowers because growing up, her green thumb was with Azaleas. Our backyard was had so many of these beautiful colors.

I don’t know all the pieces to this story, but I do remember that there was a company in Southern Pines, NC, that would deliver the Orchids to Mom so that she could enjoy their beauty. A couple of months later that same company would come and get that plant and deliver another one.

Were they her Orchids or was she just renting them? I do not know.

This card was made especially for Mom. I want to Thank Patty Bennett for the video she made with the instructions on how to color the petals and give the petals dimension with the Bone Folder.

Good Tidings of Great Joy was going to be a tag, but when I purchased the Dies by Dave “Cross-Stitched” Banner Pennant Die Set, the beauty of the Die warranted its own card.

Using Stampin’ UP! Good Tidings Stamp Set was a challenge because all these stamps are two-step stamping. Are you asking yourself, “What is two-step stamping”? Inside the stamp case are two stamps for each image. For this card, I used a lighter color (Emerald Envy) and (Old Olive) stamp pads for the darker image stamp. Then I used (Garden Green) for the lighter image stamp. If you look at the two stamps closely, the darker image is flat and the lighter image has some texture. The same is true for the other stamps in this set.

The Christmas Tag was used with the same set. I just love the effect of the two-step stamping.

If you have any questions, please post a note and I will respond.

All of these products are in my online store. Just click on the item to purchase.

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